nozzferrahhtoo wrote:Yea I am totaly for battling this one. It is an example of legal endoresement of religious beliefs. No alchohol on good friday is about as far from a secular law as it is possible to get.

It might be illegal to sell it but not to give it away or drink it.
That would be a good idea for a protest in the middle of O'Connell St and around the country.

Just put it up on the website.
Meet in O'Connell St. for a protest beer....

Human communication is a very rickety rope bridge between minds. Its too narrow to allow but a few thoughts to cross at a time. Many are lost in the chasms of noise, suspicion, misinterpretation and shooting the message through dislike of the messenger.

Ygern wrote:Next thing you'll be saying that the Gospels were written by people who never actually met Jesus.
Wait a minute...

nice one

FXR wrote:

nozzferrahhtoo wrote:Yea I am totaly for battling this one. It is an example of legal endoresement of religious beliefs. No alchohol on good friday is about as far from a secular law as it is possible to get.

It might be illegal to sell it but not to give it away or drink it. That would be a good idea for a protest in the middle of O'Connell St and around the country.Just put it up on the website. Meet in O'Connell St. for a protest beer....

But its illegal to drink on the street, can clubs sell on "Bad Friday". Maybe Atheist Ireland should register as a club, and we can all drink on X's day and good friday, it's their religion not ours.

FXR wrote:
It might be illegal to sell it but not to give it away or drink it.

only in pubs/clubs on that friday - you can purchase alcohol on trains, planes, and boats
What say ye to a train trip to (unspecified location) where we can drink and have a meeting/meet another atheist society?

Good Friday is one of the best day's of the year to have a house party because of that stupid law.

I hate the idea of St Patrick's day being moved to the last Monday of March instead of the 17th, that's just sucking up to the big business capitalist arseholes which to me is just as offensive as sucking up to the church.

you need to suggest a replacement national day, i still confused whether its only when we became a republic in 48/9 is the our most important day, don't like 1916 24th april remembrance its too militaristic and the whole thing was shortlived.

bipedalhumanoid wrote:No more than we should ban Christmas. Christmas and paddy's day have become secular. Sure if you wanted to you could turn it into something religious. You could go to church on that day or whatever but the vast majority of people don't think of religion when they think of st Patrick's day.

I agree

I hate the day myself

Each of us is here on earth for a reason, and each of us has a special mission to carry out - Maria Shriver

The three-leafed shamrock is mainly an Irish Christian symbol for the Holy Trinity-wiki. Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time)-Wiki.
So the very symbol for Patricks day is a religious symbol though I say most people would forget that part.

St. Patrick also preformed great magical miracles like a messiah, a usefull miracle like removing harmless snakes from Ireland, (why not rats).

aZerogodist wrote:The three-leafed shamrock is mainly an Irish Christian symbol for the Holy Trinity-wiki. Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time)-Wiki.
So the very symbol for Patricks day is a religious symbol though I say most people would forget that part.

St. Patrick also preformed great magical miracles like a messiah, a useful miracle like removing harmless snakes from Ireland, (why not rats).

He didn't, as I'm sure you know.
After the ice age, the snakes never got here.They barely made it to Britain, which is still almost snake-free.
The catholic church, in particular, seems to be obsessed with snakes as the epitome of all evil. Amazing that, seeing that they have produced some of the greatest snakes of all time from within their own ranks. And some of their members couldn't confine their own personal snakes within their ostentatious frocks.

im thinking that the this is interesting argument whether one should try to isolate religion or water it down, most people seem to be going for the water it down while i prefer to leave to the religious(even though it has life of its own especially outside ireland)

defo think a commemoration of the first dail would be more useful to promote worldwide then a religious based day.

It occurs to me that St Patrick's day must be one of the few widely-celebrated national holidays which does not commemorate a battle, the start or end of a war or a rebellion, or some other violent event or episode.

Given this country's troubled history with violence, that seems to me a consideration rather in favour of retaining St Patrick's day as the national holiday. You may not like the fact that it is at least nominally a celebration of religious faith, but there are plenty of worse things that can be celebrated in a national holiday.